Iraq Insurgents Channeling Tim McVeigh

According to a civilian Army contractor with expertise in explosives, insurgents in the region are switching to the use of homemade explosives because the components are readily available and U.S. forces appear to have been successful in interdicting the flow of conventional munitions.

“They’re going to HME because they don’t have the access to the munitions like they did before,” said the contractor, who asked not to be identified because it’s against his company’s policy.

The contractor said HMEs are also relatively easy to make. Common components include fertilizer, nitric acid, acetone and “any kind of oxidizer.”

“HME has been around for some time, but it’s becoming more prevalent because it’s cheap, and they can make large quantities of it,” the contractor said.

Capt. Don Braman, commander of the 25th Infantry Division’s Troop B, 1stBattalion, 40th Cavalry Regiment, said his forces encountered virtually no homemade explosives last October when they arrived near Adwaniyah, a predominately Sunni area just south of Baghdad. By February, however, they began to see it more and more.